Collision
Collision is the seventeenth episode in season four of . Synopsis What appears to have been a horrible car accident claims the life of a woman. The evidence turns up more information and another body. During this intense murder investigation Natalia must confess a secret in order for the case to be solved. Plot A woman is driving frantically, trying to escape a car pursuing her. She's unsuccessful--her car spins out of control and careens off the road, crashing into a cement barrier and coming to rest in the grass by the side of the road. By the time the CSIs arrive, she's dead, but Tripp notices blood coming out of her trunk and pops it open to reveal the body of a man. The CSIs aren't able to identify the man right away, but the woman's driver's license identifies her as Angela Ross. Delko thinks another car hit hers, and Ryan notices a traffic camera that might provide clues. Alexx points out that the male victim has been strangled, and notices red dye on his hands. Alexx takes Angela's body back to the morgue, where she detects no signs of drug abuse, though Ryan remains suspicious. Tripp tells Calleigh that the address on Angela's license was a fake, indicating that the woman's name probably isn't Angela Ross. It's a setback, but Delko has good news: he's confirmed his theory that the woman's car was indeed hit--there's a foreign paint transfer. He's also learned fibers found on the male victim were from a sheepskin seat cover. In the lab, Aaron Peters is able to get the make of the car that hit the woman's--it's a Porsche Boxter 986, which lead Horatio and Tripp to the damaged rental car of one Russell Miller, in town for a seminar. At first he denies knowing the man, but Horatio notices a red ink spot on his shirt, and keeps pressing him. Russell admits he knows the male victim. His name was Luis and he procured a hooker for Russell. Russell claims they argued over the price but denies killing Luis. Horatio has Alexx run a sex kit on Luis, hoping he may have slept with the prostitute as well, but the DNA on his genitals belongs to a man. The CSIs bring Russell back in, and he confesses under pressure: he and Luis had sex and Luis was going to blackmail him. Russell strangled him in his car, but then "Angela" drove by and spotted him killing Luis. Russell pursued her, ran her off the road and then dumped Luis's body in her trunk and drove off. Case closed...or so it seems until Alexx presents Horatio with evidence that the fatal head wounds "Angela" suffered couldn't have come from the accident. Someone killed her after the crash, meaning her real killer is still out there. Calleigh and Delko return to the car where Calleigh finds a small diamond among the glass shards. She thinks it may be part of a larger piece and checks the number against the Diamond Index of America (DIA) and traces it to a necklace from Fieldcrest Jewelers. The manager, Chris Kaiser, recognizes the diamond as one from a recently stolen necklace valued at four million dollars. He also recognizes the woman from the car--she's Barbara Sommers, an employee of his. She was a new hire of his, and must have stolen the necklace from the store. He gives the CSIs her address and Horatio and Ryan head to the house. They note a damaged pet door, and cautiously enter the house, where Horatio spots Barbara's young son, Danny. The boy is silent and frightened, but Horatio coaxes him out and brings him back to the station where a social worker tries to get him to talk. A visibly shaken Natalia Boa Vista observes the child alongside Horatio. After she leaves, Horatio asks Alexx to fluoroscope Barbara's body. Delko is able to pull a print off the glass from the car window, which leads him to Howard Benchley, a man from Michigan with a DUI conviction. He claims he pulled over to help Barbara but found her already dead and left after calling it in. Delko remains suspicious. He's also suspicious of Natalia's interest in the case, and she gets upset when he insinuates that she might be the mole in the department. Offended, she walks off. Ryan has analyzed trace from the pet door from Barbara's house and found sterling silver scrapings, leading the CSIs back to Chris Kaiser, the jewelry store manager. Calleigh tells Chris she knows he was at the house, and he admits he went there to retrieve the necklace Barbara stole. He didn't report it stolen for worry of what would happen to him--he had been the one to hire Barbara. Calleigh notes that if he had reported the necklace stolen, Barbara might still be alive. In the AV lab, Dan Cooper shows Ryan footage of Barbara, but she's headed northbound, and the accident happened on the southbound side, indicating she may have had a change of heart about stealing the necklace. Alexx reports that the fluoroscope revealed Barbara was subject to terrible abuse--healed fractures and breaks cover her bones. Natalia overhears Horatio's conversation with Alexx and approaches him to tell him she and Barbara are part of an underground group that helps battered women escape their abusers. Though it violates the group rules, Natalia offers to do some digging for Horatio. The CSIs get another break when a woman named Rita is caught trying to pawn the necklace. She tells Horatio and Frank that she found the necklace in Barbara's car after Barbara was already dead. She recalls seeing a silver SUV by the car when she took the necklace. Natalia has Barbara's married name for Horatio: Benchley. They turn back to Howard, but he claims he was only in town to get his son, Danny. Ryan can't figure out what Howard used to kill Barbara until Calleigh takes a look at the mold of Barbara's head wounds that Alexx made and recognizes that they were caused by a gun. A return trip to the pawnshop reveals that Rita also pawned a gun--the gun used to kill Barbara. Howard tells Horatio he didn't come to kill Barbara--he wanted to get her back. But when he went to her car after Russell ran her off the road, she pointed a gun at him. He grabbed it from her, found it was unloaded, and beat her to death. Horatio looks at him in disgust--he's orphaned his son. Delko catches up to Natalia and apologizes to her for his suspicions while Horatio consoles Danny, telling him that his father killed his mother as well, and he promises to be there for the boy. Cast Main Cast *David Caruso as Horatio Caine *Emily Procter as Calleigh Duquesne *Adam Rodríguez as Eric Delko *Khandi Alexander as Alexx Woods *Jonathan Togo as Ryan Wolfe Guest Cast *Rex Linn as Frank Tripp *Eva LaRue as Natalia Boa Vista *Brendan Fehr as Dan Cooper * Armando Valdez-Kennedy as Aaron Peters * Rachel Cannon as Angela Ross/Barbara Benchley * Benjamin King as Russell Miller * Victor Alfieri as Luis Reyes * Richard T. Jones as Chris Kaiser * Jackson Bond as Danny Sommers * Jaqueline Fleming as Social Worker * Joe Sikora as Howard Benchley * Ana Cristina De Oliveira as Rita Davis * Kevin Ramsey as Duke See Also Category:CSI: Miami Episodes